Kabul faces blackout as Taliban fail to pay bills



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The Afghan capital could be plunged into darkness as winter approaches, as the country’s new Taliban rulers have failed to pay Central Asia’s electricity providers or resume collecting electricity. money from consumers.

If not resolved, the situation could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, warned Daud Noorzai, who resigned as director general of the country’s state power monopoly, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, nearly two weeks after. the takeover of power by the Taliban on August 15.

A Taliban fighter in the foreground and a group of Afghan men attend Friday prayers in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, September 24, 2021.

A Taliban fighter in the foreground and a group of Afghan men attend Friday prayers in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, September 24, 2021.
(PA)

“The consequences would be nationwide, but especially in Kabul. There will be a blackout and that would take Afghanistan back to the dark ages when it comes to power and telecommunications,” Mr. Noorzai, who remains in close contact with the remaining management of DABS. . “It would be a really dangerous situation.”

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Electricity imports from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan account for half of Afghanistan’s electricity consumption nationwide, with Iran providing additional supplies to the west of the country. Domestic production, mainly in hydropower plants, has been affected by the drought this year. Afghanistan does not have a national electricity grid and Kabul depends almost entirely on electricity imported from Central Asia.

Currently, power is plentiful in the Afghan capital, a rare, albeit transient, improvement since the Taliban takeover. Part of the reason is that the Taliban are no longer attacking transmission lines from Central Asia. Another reason is that, with industry shut down and military and government installations largely idle, a much larger share of the power supply ends up at residential consumers, thus eliminating the blackouts that were common.

However, this could come to an abrupt end if suppliers in Central Asia, especially Tajikistan, whose relations with the Taliban are deteriorating rapidly, decide to cut DABS for non-payment.

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Tajikistan has hosted anti-Taliban resistance leaders, such as former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, and recently deployed additional troops to its border with Afghanistan, prompting Russia to call on the two countries to defuse itself.

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